if we can register to own a bank account, i see no reason why we cant also register for sim cards also.

I wonder ö. So do they want Person and just Ur one sim? They should just give us a date and bar all of us. Iz this pat of the seven points agenda?

The way I understand it, your service provider will register all new sim cards.
Individuals don’t have to do anything, your current handset sim will be replaced
When you need a new set. All new sim cards sold is registered
If you lose, or your phone is stolen, call your service provider and the sim card is blocked.
This will stop people stealing handsets.

I was just contemplating on purchasing my 7th sim card, not too gud news though*

dis is nice but what does dis registration take and require pls

This is rather unforunate to think that all that matters to this "once-upon-a-time vibrant" but recently dump lady is SIM registeration while there are more important issues to tackle while in government, she is utterly missing the real reason Nigerians where behind her during as NDLEA Boss, Cos now is simply dillusional.

Wake UP DORA, IS this all important to you now

How will this better the life(-ves) of Nigerians?

Don't celebrate yet. ;DIts not the best idea from our politician yet! where do you go looking for the owner of the sim card when our addresses are not traceable. this is like starting your education from the University and finishing at the crèche ( cert. not good for anything)

naijafine:

@evil brain , what a name;please don't show your ignorance in public.in developed countries Sims are registered.

@naijafine:

And which developed countries are u quoting here, Iran or North Korea cus I dont know any Western Country that insists on such!

beknown:

This is an excellent idea.

Many people do not understand the way to fight crime in a clever way. In developed countries like UK and USA, sim cards are registered. As a result, all mobile calls in developed countries can be tracked and traced.

Nigerians should support this idea with open mind.

Sim cards are not registered in America or the UK.  A handful of first world countries including France, Germany and Australia do it but its certainly not widespread. Notably, non of the countries with this type of scheme has reported any significant impact on crime.

nigerfine:

@evil brain , what a name;please don't show your ignorance in public.in developed countries Sims are registered. which should see it as a welcome development and the question becomes ;the modality of doing this.it could cub crime to a degree, we cant keep on condemning on and on without advising and moving forward.

Here's a 2006 study on the subject (it's a PDF). Feel free to educate yourself.
http://www.sfu.ca/cprost/prepaid/docs/Gow-PrivacyRightsAndPrepaidCommunicationServices.pdf

violent:

I also doubt that the government is bringing up this policies to monitor your private life. . . i mean, i don't think anyone is getting employed to monitor daily activities of over a hundred million mobile phone users. . .who cares?
The scheme is designed to investigate specific cases and obtain evidence for prosecution purposes.


The fight for a better Nigeria has to begin somewhere, even if it involves given up a little privacy!

Listen to yourself. You are arguing that a bunch of thieves are interested in fighting crime.

Sure, maybe the government isn't interested in who the evil brain is calling, but I'm sure they won't mind knowing who Atiku and Buhari and Ribadu and Tinubu and Femi Falana are talking to. Whats to stop them from monitoring their political rivals' call histories or even intercepting calls? Do you think that people who steal billions will think twice before tapping someone's phone? If Gani was still alive, you think his phone wouldn't be tapped?

If you give them this power, they will abuse it. You need too stop being so naive.

most times i wonder how these our leaders get such disdainful thought from, picture this, how can you claim to have all sims registered but cannot merge them with a certain identity it is just like looking in a mirror but could not see any image, thus, if i were to register three of my sim cards with three different names will there be any form of identity to show that i am who i say i am? No!
Who are they fooling? I think the first thing is to get everyone's information on a data base.
Some nairalanders said in advance countries sims are registered, yes they are registered and so are the people, do we have that in Nigeria?
No!

, Another Nollywood story unfolds, I bet you millions of babies are being birthed this moment without any proof that THEY ARE NIGERIANS, Dora needs to get her priorities right,

Another Failed Project. Any sustainability in Naija? Another Regime comes, and everything goes into oblivion.

How will this idea work?

The exercise started already.
Whether it's good or bad, operators are already doing it. We no get choice.

I wonder why people see this as a waste of time: Its a great idea wether other countries do it or NOT:

My god! Am I the only person that sees what a silly idea this is?

So the government is going to register sim cards to prevent crime? But whats to stop a thief from stealing someone else's phone and using it to do whatever? And what kind of silly criminal uses his personal phone to commit crime?

When you car is stolen what do you do??: simply report a missing phone once it gets missing else you face the consequences

That aside sef, whats to stop me from telling MTN that my name is Nelson Mandela or Oliver DeCoque or something? How are they going to prove that I'm not Nelson Mandela? Hardly anybody has a passport in this country, and the equally silly national ID project only targeted those over 18 years (less than 40% of the population according to UN figures) and many of those either were never registered, never got their cards or got them and have since lost them.

That should not be your problem son!! At least you'll have to work harder to commit crime: If the database is made available to the police and you find yourself in any wahala i pray you will not forget your phone is an ID card??

And how is my grandmother going to travel from the village to the nearest Glo service centre God knows how many kilometers away to register her phone? How many hours/days/weeks is she going to queue for. It took me over 6 hours just to reclaim my line when my phone was stolen a few years ago because of the crazy queue at the Glo office in Challenge, Ibadan. What's going to happen when the whole country is rushing to beat the deadline?

Am sorry your grandmother might just loose her phone, BTW: there are no ques now, i'll advice you go tomoro.

And what about the privacy implications? Don't I have the right to make a phone call without our useless, corrupt government knowing about it? What if you're cheating on your girlfriend (not a crime) or plotting to escape from an abusive husband (also not a crime). Is it not your right to keep your secrets secret as long as you're not breaking the law?

Government officials are not monitoring your call always except you give them a reason to, corrupt or no corrupt who says they are not monitoring it NOW?? and they'll still need a warrant, The telecom operators are still binded by a privacy act,

Whatever i think it a step i the right direction, If it were implemented since kidnapping wldn't have been this easy,

Soooo in order to curb crime i.e death threats to politicians and smooth operation for MEND and kidnappers, Telcos should register their SIMS to the owners. How does that work exactly, when a criminal makes a call they can look up his fake name and fake address

The importance of SIM Registration is not lost to me, but to say that it will go as far as preventing or curbing crime is another incredulous matter.

But we all know how such things can be pivotal to surviving 2011 re-elections

What an insensitive approach to curb crime.

aint about crime, its about anor money-making scam for all involved!!!
just like National ID card. i will eat my hat if they actually get round to banning anyone

no be so dem talk say national id card will be essential to all? cant even locate mine anymore

enforcing all sim card to registered in nija, is just formality and can;t never work even in western world it didn;t work how come nija.in nigeria we don;t use post code system so how could it be able work.

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I wonder why people see this as a waste of time: Its a great idea wether other countries do it or NOT:

your opinion doesn't reflect the reality on ground in Nigeria

When you car is stolen what do you do??: simply report a missing phone once it gets missing else you face the consequences

perhaps you have not bothered to find out y The operators rescinded on asking subscribers to get police extract,court affidavits,sim packs etc when it was still the norm to be able to retrieve their lines, when stolen

That should not be your problem son!! At least you'll have to work harder to commit crime: If the database is made available to the police and you find yourself in any wahala i pray you will not forget your phone is an ID card??

Did i hear you say database?, by whom? MTN and co will set up such infrastructure for a lazy government like ours, Oga no vex ooo, who bears the running cost? abi MTN follow you dey fight crime?

you think to maintain a referral database is like hanging a calender on the wall, u gotta be kidding me let me tell you how this thing will play out, NCC on the pretext of maintaining a ''National Telecommunication Database'' will start asking for more funding, the Government gets tired because it will open a hell of windows for looting, the project is abandoned just like any other senseless government project

Oga pls let me ask you a simple question; How much do you think that banks in Nigeria spend annually to be able to run their data bases to enable you withdraw from anybranch at anytime including ATMs?

pls make some research and come back
Naija wey no get light you dey find data base

Before you know it another federal portfolio will be created ''FEDRAL LAISON WITH TELECOM OPERATORS'' from there money go dey go.

Even if they succeed in collating the data with the help of the telecom operators and a CID in Owerri calls the ''National Telecommunication Database'' (NTD) that he needs phone records for his investigation what do you think the answer will be? liken it to when you call the police to inform them that thieves are in your house RUBBISH.

Am sorry your grandmother might just loose her phone, BTW: there are no ques now, i'll advice you go tomoro.

Later MTN will fashion the procedure in a way that will suite their interest abi u think say dey come Naija to catch pigeon and kidnappers

Government officials are not monitoring your call always except you give them a reason to, corrupt or no corrupt who says they are not monitoring it NOW?? and they'll still need a warrant, The telecom operators are still binded by a privacy act,

Whatever i think it a step i the right direction, If it were implemented since kidnapping wldn't have been this easy,

You must be living in Ghana, a freaking contract staff with one of the operators has bragged to me and some friends that so long as we have had dealings with CS that he can comfortably extract our numbers within days.
Did i hear you say warrant in Naija? where police they use leg burst person house Arrest papa, Arrest Mama kidnap pikin just for crime wey dia inlaw commit simply because the inlaw registered their family as next of kin
you are seriously not a Nigerian.

One phone call one governor don intimidate the person in charge and next na political assassination you go hear, rule of law wey don die with yaradua.

Whatever i think it a step i the right direction, If it were implemented since kidnapping wldn't have been this easy,

Oga before you start jubilating, please ensure your last employer is no longer angry with you cos your new address is just a phone call away thanks to Dora and her political fish brain

Before Nigeria will dream of a Database of such, some minor steps have to be accomplished

We must enact strict Privacy laws, even if we have, it should be amended to suit this particular purpose

We must Tame our police: yes we must tame them such that if there is a breach in any of the privacy guidelines, it will behoove a particular sanction, and when tamed we can atleast guarantee implementation

Most importantly, we must have constant electricity; this will ensure that the data base is up and running without stories,
Take a trip to our fedral and state secretariats, directors dey blow hand fan where heat wan kill them, na dem go dey manage database for you.

E BE LIKE SAY DORA DON DEY SMOKE WEED

we seriously need prayers in this country the way our leaders misplace dia priorities

sim registration wont stop crime in naija as our people will devise means of perpetuating their evil tendencies, let me say some here.
1 do you know that some UK numbers work in naija at present ( ask d yahoo guys)
2 The robbers or kidnappers might use their victim's number to request for ransom
Tell me how do u think this will stop crime in naija. my submission.

I have an important question. . .
What about the sim card in the modem, does that one need registration too?

binhozie:

I have an important question. . .
What about the sim card in the modem, does that one need registration too?

That question's been lurking around for a bit now, and there's been no news on it yet.
My Question: Will existing subscribers be required to register their sims too? I just don't see how this thing will work, they're great grand parents with cell phones in the village that don't know anything about this. How do they want to start?